This is a very impressive and well-researched article. There is no question the
country in general faces problems with air pollution, and the characteristics of
Salt Lake Valley make it particularly difficult. I agree that there is no single
"magic bullet" but I think the electric car is the closest thing to it.
GM is working on a new series of batteries that can go 100 to 200 miles on a
single charge. If it works, that will really be a game changer.

Recall that Brigham Young, president of the LDS Church moved its headquarters to
St. George during winter months to escape that same inversion. Problem then was
smoke from wood fires that heated buildings in that day. Wish we had some way of
measuring that today to see whether there's actually been an improvement.

There's just too many people in the Wasatch Front. I remember those
inversions back when I lived in Utah (21 yrs ago). For those of you still there,
it is ok to move out to more rural, less polluted places. I fear many won't
move because they think they are in Zion, but ask yourself during an inversion,
is this Zion? The air is clean here in rural VA.

I think the author of the article did a good job of explaining information
supplied. However, I'm inclined to take it with a grain of salt, and I know
salt can kill you too. I recall when the steel plant closed the last time,
researchers were surprised that air quality did not improve in Utah County. We
can't have everything. Many of our conveniences depend on processes that
cause air pollution, yet most of us don't want to give up those
conveniences. There are also many questions on what causes asthma, and we know
that there are many questions for which we don't have answers.

I think this article shows that asthma CANNOT be related to higher levels of PM
2.5 in Utah County. The PM 2.5 levels have actually dropped a huge amount over
the past 30 years. People only think it is worse because the EPA has continued
to drop the standard every 5 years or so. You have PM 2.5 levels dropping and
asthma increasing, in fact one can conclude that there is no relationship
between the two.

Everyone needs to contribute to solve this problem. Industry needs to spend
more of its profits on pollution controls, commercial businesses and homes need
to do a better job conserving energy through better insulation, energy efficient
appliances, heating and cooling systems and lighting. Vehicle owners need to
drive less and when it is time to buy a new vehicle, upgrade to a hybrid or
better, old diesel trucks need to be retired. That leaves what the state,
county and cities can do: subsidize public transportation, and provide a
feed-in-tariff for roof mounted solar panels as California, Mass., Oregon and
Arizona have done to lower the need to create electricity by coal and gas fired
generation plants. Going Green is good business and will stimulate our local
economy. These jobs cannot be out sourced. Finding alternative, clean energy
sources now is smart because fossil fuels will continue to increase in price and
they will eventually run out. Why wait for that day before we act when we can
prepare ourselves now?

Did I miss something here? ALl new trucks and cars should have natural gas
powered systems. Natural gas just about eliminates the nitrogen oxides, has half
the CO2 of coal fired power plants, and your engine will last twice as long. It
is good for trucks, cars, buses, bulldozers, etc. It is cheap, plentiful, and
it is ours. What are we waiting for. I recommend all public vehicles go to
natural gas and the public will follow. This is the silver bullet.

Go up the canyons during a winter inversion and look down on the mess below.
Then tell me we don't have an air quality problem along the Wasatch Front.
Mass transit is part of the solution. UTA now has hybrid clean air hybrid
buses and limits idling times. Another solution is getting rid of clunker cars.
I few years ago I visited Japan. I noticed there were no older model worn out
cars on the road. We should do the same here. No oil burning smoke belching
cars. Give the cops the authority to pull cars with excessive exhaust smoke
over and impound them. Give tax credits for trading an old high mileage
vehcles for a newer one. Cash for clunkers was the right concept, poor
implementation. As far as those on the far right who want to get eliminate the
EPA I say nuts to that.

I can't believe the irrational number of rationalizations appearing on this
page today. Who are you trying to kid? Let's see... "Genocide is good
for business and reduces pollution." Right? It's this kind of bury
your head in the sand wrong thinking that enables Utah legislators to turn a
blind eye to very serious issues. Instead, we are diverted to political hot
buttons promoting ideology... not ecology. Thank you, Amy Joi O'Donoghue
for this comprehensive piece. Unfortunately, cynicism tells me that the road
ahead is not merely up hill. We are approaching an environmental precipice. If
the recent droughts don't open influential eyes, we are all in for a Long
Hot Century.

This article was pretty well done, but it missed the most obvious solution to
the problem here on the Wasatch front: converting vehicles to run on natural
gas. Thanks to Questar, we have one of the best cng infrastructures in the
country- cng is cheap, domestically plentiful, and the cleanest burning fuel we
have. The biggest obstacle has been EPA and its ridiculous rules (not laws)
that discourage and inhibit cheap conversions enjoyed almost everywhere in the
World.

1) I like the video. I don't
know if DN has done anything like that before, but I hope it continues. The
video seemed a bit less professional than I suspect the DN would want, but for a
company that's moved from paper>online>video-content, I think this
is awesome!

2) Jobs are jobs and kennicott has a real business
interest here (not to mention a bit of landmark value). I'm all for
allowing them to continue, but not at the expense of health.

I am
sick and tired of our horrible air and practices. Renewable energy is essential
to being good stewards over the Earth, imo. Utah, for all the great things we do
and have here- has more than just a 'bad mark' for our environmental
record. To me, this is just embarrassing. God gave us a clean planet. Therefore,
the problem is only attributable in one direction, towards us.

We are
addicted to letting other people make our decisions for us. We let oil
companies, we let politicians, we let businesses run the show. I'm all for
free market, but WE need to choose better, smarter.